Neil LaBute
Neil LaBute
Neil N. LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter, playwright and actor. He is most likely known for his first film, based on a play he wrote, In the Company of Men, which won awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle. He has also written and directed the films Possession, The Shape of Things, The Wicker Man, Some Velvet Morning, Dirty Weekend, and directed the films Nurse Betty, Lakeview Terrace,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth19 March 1963
CountryUnited States of America
It's just often more interesting to write about one or more people who are being awful to other people because it makes for exciting, dramatic fare.
I still am somewhat guarded with my feelings. A lot of writers find it much easier to express themselves on paper. That hasn't changed.
I think people are capable of everything I've written. Would they ever do it? I don't know and really don't care, because that's not my business.
I don't see my career as this steady building to a point, it's just a path that wanders for me to do whatever I'm interested in doing.
We live in a disposable society. It's easier to throw things out than to fix them. We even give it a name - we call it recycling.
In a relationship you have to open yourself up.
But for me, it feels like a natural extension of what I've been doing: exploring relationships. Here you have two relationships and we can explore how difficult it is for people to be together.
It's funny how that comes up, because sometimes I'll write something and I'll think, I don't know if that's a film or a play, and then other things I feel very strongly about them just being plays - they feel very theatrical to me.
The future is now. It's time to grow up and be strong. Tomorrow may well be too late.
Sitting in an automobile was where I first remember understanding how drama works ... Hidden in the back seat of a sedan, I quickly realized how deep the chasm or intense the claustrophobia could be inside your average family car.
I felt, if I'm going to take on some of the most overdone material, which is men and women and affairs and betrayal of friends, I had better have a new take on it. I think my films come from a desperation not to be boring.
Movies are - all I've found is that they're just tougher and tougher to make.
Without In The Company of Men, I could still be teaching, so who knows if this would've existed.
I would be more frightened as a writer if people thought my movies were like science fiction.